Forum:The Cycle Conundrum
Just trying to figure out how the datecycles (term used by Exeter in the cutscene) work in the games: *MP1 Pirates Cycles are 09.992.3 (Fall of Zebes)-11.664.2 *MP2 Pirates Cycles are 04.468.1-07.159.9 *MP2 Exeter's Last Report is dated 07.014.2 (Cosmos) (this is in an MP2 cutscene). Ok, so here's the dilemma and my proposed solution. Clearly, the cycle system varies by planet, because MP2 has a lower datecycle. Remember, Tallon IV is the Pirates' first contact with Phazon. also, bear in mind MP1 is 3 yrs after the original Metroid, and the beginning of the Pirate log for MP3 is 2 yrs after the discovery of Phazon. *I think there are differing Zebesian and Aetherian cycle logs based on starting date (which, strangely, the Pirate/Trooper logs agree on the date on Aether.) *Zebesian (later used on Tallon IV) **09.XXX.X Samus's invasion of Zebes **10.229.2 Phazon's discovery **11.664.2 *Aetherian **00.XXX.X Aether Phazon discovered **04.468.1 Pirates begin Phazon operation **07.014.2 Last report of Captain Exeter of the GF **07.159.9 MP2 begins. I think the date 00.000.1 probably notes the beginning of major government in a planet- Pirate or Federation. We cannot take the first 2 digits as years, because otherwise the pirates would've known about Phazon for 7 years. If the first 2 numbers define months, then the Pirates only wrote logs for 3 months of their 3 yrs between Metroid and Metroid Prime. So how does this cycle conundrum work? I've established different planets use different notations (possibly beginning with government action on a planet), and that both sides recognize the cycle system. However, the real question is what the numbers signify. Thoughts? ''MetVet'' Oh boy... I guess we better get to work on a Cycle article with all of the best information we can discern from it, huh? I'll see what I can piece together from the Zebes>Phazon thing... ChozoBoy http://metroid.wikia.com ADMIN (Talk/ ) 05:48, November 6, 2009 (UTC) I hate to be a wet sock, but the other thing we may have to keep in mind is that the "Fall of Zebes" data may not have been sent just after/during the event of the game. Everyone except those on the frigates were killed, after all... ChozoBoy http://metroid.wikia.com ADMIN (Talk/ ) 06:02, November 6, 2009 (UTC) :Duly noted. Cycle is now a page that needs work. ''MetVet'' Great job, man! Very thorough! Try your best to avoid anything speculative, though... ChozoBoy http://metroid.wikia.com ADMIN (Talk/ ) 01:27, November 7, 2009 (UTC) One thing that I realised is that the decimal form of the cycles may loop repeatedly, so that a single XX.XXX.X date can repeat multiple times as the calendar moves through some other un-recorded time measure (I am thinking that this other calendrical unit might be the four-digit alphanumeric "cosmic calendar" from the 2-D games).... if so cycle counting is useless for large measures of time (but it would explain the repeat problem without the cycle system being different for each planet).... I'll try and figure out some basic conversion between Metroid "years" and Cycles by comparing events measured in both.--AdmiralSakai 00:58, March 31, 2010 (UTC) UPDATE: By finding the Cycle discrepency between the Sapce Pirate log describing the attack of the Feds and the one describing the arrival of Samus, then using the fact that Samus arrived approximately 8 "day"s after the Feds lost contact with the Tyr (which happened as soon as they landed), I was able to determine that one Metroid "day" = 18.2875 in the middle part of the cycle. Since the last number appears to be one tenth of the middle number, there are 182.875 of them in a "day". It looks like the last two numbers are worth 1000 of the middle ones, so a day is .0182875 of the big number. To put it another way, each middle number is around .05468 "day"s long, each first number is 54.682 "day"s, and each last number is .0054 "day"s. (I think this math is right..... if not, please feel free to correct it.) If a Metroid "day" is at all similar to a terrestrial day, then it would make sense for there to be another unit of measure that the cycles loop inside. I'll keep working at this.... but Cycles seem to be rather short... means that the Pirates' entire stay on Aether was only about 136.705 days long! --AdmiralSakai 01:36, March 31, 2010 (UTC)